Jekyll2019-03-21T18:00:59+00:00http://www.danbeekim.org/feed.xmlTaunVIRSHi! This is my corner of the internet. It is constantly under revision ^.^Danbee Tauntaun Kimdanbee@alum.mit.eduhttp://danbeekim.orgJoining the British Brain Bee Scientific Committee!2018-05-22T00:00:00+00:002018-05-22T00:00:00+00:00http://www.danbeekim.org/projects/2018/05/22/brain-bee-scientific-committee<p>I was recently asked to join the scientific committee for the British Brain Bee! This means I will be helping create the exams and other activities for next year’s Brain Bee competition in the UK.</p>
<p>To introduce myself on the <a href="https://brainbee-uk.com/?page_id=2385">British Brain Bee website</a>, I was asked to create a short personal history.</p>
<figure class="">
<img src="http://www.danbeekim.org/assets/images/scribbles/Danbee%20Kim%20personal%20timeline.png" alt="Danbee Kim's brief personal timeline" />
<figcaption>To create this timeline, I used the free online graphic design tool website <a href="https://www.canva.com/">Canva</a>.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I’m always surprised by how helpful it can be when I need to summarize my PhD life. By forcing myself to condense everything from the past 5 years into a short and sweet, easy to digest morsel, I actually also force myself to understand more clearly the fundamental structure of my thought processes, which at times seem totally chaotic and in a million directions at once. But when I make these little distillations, I’m soothed by a sense of purpose and “coming together”, which I don’t really get from most other traditional scientific outputs.</p>
<p>In a way, this is one of the greatest benefits of scientific outreach for the scientist. Answering the question, “How can I connect my research to the experiences and interests of every day folk?” is an exercise I cannot recommend highly enough, especially for neuroscientists.</p>Danbee Tauntaun Kimdanbee@alum.mit.eduhttp://danbeekim.orgI was recently asked to join the scientific committee for the British Brain Bee!VIRS: Character sketch 012018-02-28T00:00:00+00:002018-02-28T00:00:00+00:00http://www.danbeekim.org/projects/2018/02/28/VIRS-character-sketch-01<h3 id="character-sketch---the-architect">CHARACTER SKETCH - THE ARCHITECT</h3>
<p>Good with grand ideas and inspiring large groups of people, though very self-deprecating and more introverted than she presents. Very generous with friends and colleagues and often cheerful, but goes through bouts of cynicism when too many take advantage of her generosity and good nature. Enjoys the quiet and wild beauty of rural living but is drawn to cities and the sensation of being part of a super-organism.</p>
<p>Mother is an herbalist who studies plants useful for space travel (exo-hydroponics). Father is a farmer specializing in permaculture. Grew up in a small rural community.</p>
<p>Name: Asoca, or “Soca”</p>
<h3 id="character-sketch---the-engineer">CHARACTER SKETCH - THE ENGINEER</h3>
<p>Meticulous worker who prefers working alone because not enough people meet her standards for competence, but loves to coordinate ambitious projects with a small group of trusted collaborators. Picky about everything: food, her friends, and how she spends her time. Pessimistic about human systems but convinced that the destructive tendencies in human nature are the result of generations of indoctrination by a corporate oligarchy. Believes in the ideal role of education to free humans from oppressive systems and to empower humans to live in a society of true equals.</p>
<p>Mother is a mathematician who worked on the ansible but retired to teach high school. Father is an artist activist who has been protesting the application of the ansible for secret government surveillance and military oppression. Grew up in the affluent part of a large urban area.</p>
<p>Name: Min, or “Minka” or “Mini”</p>
<p><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons Licence" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><br /><span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" property="dct:title">Vigilante Intergalactic Roustabout Scholars (VIRS)</span> by <a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" href="danbeekim.org" property="cc:attributionName" rel="cc:attributionURL">Danbee Kim</a> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>.<br />Based on a work at <a xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="http://www.danbeekim.org/projects/2018/02/28/VIRS-concept/" rel="dct:source">http://www.danbeekim.org/projects/2018/02/28/VIRS-concept/</a>.<br />Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at <a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" href="danbeekim.org" rel="cc:morePermissions">danbeekim.org</a>.</p>Danbee Tauntaun Kimdanbee@alum.mit.eduhttp://danbeekim.orgCharacter sketches of the Architect and the EngineerVIRS: World building and concept summary2018-02-28T00:00:00+00:002018-02-28T00:00:00+00:00http://www.danbeekim.org/projects/2018/02/28/VIRS-concept<p><em>“They are the Benevolent Dictator and the First VIRS. They are the Architect and the Engineer.”</em></p>
<p>V.I.R.S., pronounced “verse”, stands for Vigilante Intergalactic Roustabout Scholar. Roaming bands of VIRSs travel in ships powered by heartsongs, about a generation and a half after the Passing of the Architect, who brought humanity through a Golden Space Age and extended the human empire across many galaxies. The Architect built many public libraries and universities in order to spread knowledge and learning throughout the empire, but when she Passed, these libraries and universities began to sequester knowledge and control information through propoganda. So the bands of VIRSs raid and pillage libraries and universities, then put on circus shows about what they’ve learned.</p>
<p>During the Galactic Empire, there was much prosperity thanks to the rapid technological advances brought on by the invention of the ansible (faster-than-light communication). This swelled the ranks of a well-educated and financially stable middle class, who began to indulge in body modifications, or “mods”, especially medical mods and job specialization mods. However, after the Passing, the corporations that manufacture and repair mods gained enormous economic power, which they used as social and political leverage. The prevalence of users kept up the demand for mods and mod repairs and replacements, but corporate overlords, motivated by greed and not benevolence, prioritized profit margins instead of affordability and availability. “Mod-virgin” was once a derogatory term during the Empire, but after the Passing people began to use the term “Mod-free”, or just “Free”. As time passes, more and more humans, especially in the poorer or more remote parts of the Old Empire are born “Free”. Humans begin using the question “Are you Free?” to refer to one’s independence from institutional supply chains, both philosophical and practical.</p>
<p>The First VIRS was the Architect’s best friend. They grew up together, and as young adults they both attended the ISS Corps, a pre-university level training institute for those interested in career class “Interplanetary Travel and Communications”. The ISS Corps provide support to the International Space Station and any shuttles traveling to and from the station. While attending the ISS Corps, the two friends learned a great deal about the cutting edge of space exploration technology, and saw that humanity was poised on the brink of great societal changes due to the imminent development of faster-than-light transportation and communication. The two friends realized that political power structures and the distribution of wealth would undergo incredible upheaval, and that within their lifetimes humanity would either cooperate to spread to the stars or squander our chance through greed, mismanagement, and short-sightedness.</p>
<p>One friend felt that if humans were to become a space-faring species, competent leaders with a unified vision needed to coordinate across global resources for developing space travel and communication. Otherwise, opportunities could be wasted in the face of political conflict or incompetence. While studying at the ISS Corps, she meets an urban planner who has been hired to plan renovations and expansions to the ISS. They bond over a shared passion for understanding and designing the infrastructure necessary for space exploration. After that fateful encounter, this friend went on to study exo-architecture (designing and building space stations and colonies) at Space University and maintained close correspondence with her mentor as he renovated the ISS.</p>
<p>The other friend felt that if humans were to become a space-faring species, space travel needed to become easily accessible, and for that to happen, the knowledge, skills, and materials needed to go to space needed to be more widely available. Her passion for teaching and sharing knowledge pushed her to excel in her studies, earning her a strong recommendation for Space University. When she decides to continue vocational training with the ISS Corps, her focus and discipline earn her a position on the ISS Corps teaching staff after completing her university-level certification. She becomes close friends with one of the ISS lead engineers over their shared passion for sustainability practices and the open access movement. This engineer teaches her how to build space-worthy craft from recycled parts and space debris, and engages her in long discussions about the power of information for good and evil.</p>
<p>Throughout these years, the friends stay in touch, sharing their experiences and insights with each other. And they begin to see a slow but steady divergence in their values, even while converging on the shared goal of helping humanity become a space-faring civilization. The architect joins a government project to build a network of space stations that would serve as waypoints for space explorers. The engineer becomes a full-fledged professor at the ISS Corps, and begins to apply open access ideologies to the coursework and management of the ISS Corps.</p>
<p>While working for the government, the architect realizes that the corporate powers controlling ansible technology are manipulating politicians and exploiting workers, making it very difficult for space exploration to progress as fast as it could. Frustrated by the obviously profit-hungry machinations of the corporate oligarchy, the architect begins to organize political opposition to their power structure. The architect begins devoting more and more of her efforts into controlling the means of production for exo-architecture and farming infrastructures for space stations and colonies. She begins to win the passionate interest of young people coming from rural communities around the world, who are keen to apply their skills in an exciting new domain. With their support, the architect spearheads the construction of several space farms, which begin distributing food to planet-side locations in need via the World Food Programme. When several consecutive years of disastrous weather conditions decimate food supplies on Earth, these space farms become the largest producer of food for human society, and more and more people from Earth choose to enter training programs to work on these space farms.</p>
<p>While teaching at the ISS Corps, the engineer begins to realize that space-travel will scatter humans in an unprecedented way, and communication between planets would become an important source of culture, identity, history, and knowledge in the human empire. If this communication is controlled by a central power, there exists an immense potential for propaganda, manipulation, and exploitation. If this communication has many avenues, many sources, many couriers all working for diverse interests, then the power of any one organization or community could be tempered and checked by its neighbor organizations and communities. The engineer becomes even more concerned with empowering people to exist as free-thinking and freely organizing individuals in a space empire once she becomes a professor at the ISS Corps, and she becomes repeatedly frustrated with the expectations and skillsets of the highly educated and privileged youth who comprise the vast majority of the ISS Corps student body. She begins re-vamping the ISS Corps application process and training program, and steadily becomes more and more involved in planet-side educational reform and activism.</p>
<p><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons Licence" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><br /><span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" property="dct:title">Vigilante Intergalactic Roustabout Scholars (VIRS)</span> by <a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" href="danbeekim.org" property="cc:attributionName" rel="cc:attributionURL">Danbee Kim</a> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>.<br />Based on a work at <a xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="http://www.danbeekim.org/projects/2018/02/28/VIRS-concept/" rel="dct:source">http://www.danbeekim.org/projects/2018/02/28/VIRS-concept/</a>.<br />Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at <a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" href="danbeekim.org" rel="cc:morePermissions">danbeekim.org</a>.</p>Danbee Tauntaun Kimdanbee@alum.mit.eduhttp://danbeekim.orgThey are the Benevolent Dictator and the First VIRS. They are the Architect and the Engineer.VIRS: principles and guidelines2018-02-28T00:00:00+00:002018-02-28T00:00:00+00:00http://www.danbeekim.org/projects/2018/02/28/VIRS-principles<h2 id="vigilante-intergalactic-roustabout-scholars--or-education-piracy">Vigilante Intergalactic Roustabout Scholars – or, education piracy</h2>
<h3 id="first-and-foremost-a-virs-is-a-teacher">First and foremost, a VIRS is a teacher.</h3>
<p>As teachers, VIRSs do not seek violence even while preparing themselves to face it without fear. A VIRS constantly seeks to share knowledge and experience with other VIRSs, or anyone else who demonstrates a desire for and commitment to learning.</p>
<h3 id="build-your-own-tools">Build your own tools.</h3>
<p>VIRSs explore the unknown and thus require the ability to build custom tools from finite ingredients, optimized for the needs of the moment. VIRSs cannot prepare everything they may possibly need before embarking on their adventures and projects, nor do VIRSs wish to constrain themselves to only asking questions or solving problems for which optimized tools already exist.</p>
<h3 id="trust-your-crew">Trust your crew.</h3>
<p>Exploring the unknown requires the strength and resilience that comes from living as part of a healthy, fun, and hardworking crew. Joining or leaving a VIRS crew is a process of mutual respect, vulnerability, and empathy.</p>
<h3 id="information-is-free-knowledge-is-built">Information is free, knowledge is built.</h3>
<p>Information – facts, figures, detailed descriptions, processes, and procedures – can be transferred without experience, and thus should be given freely to anyone who seeks it. Knowledge – the how, why, when, and with whom one should use information – depends on experience and thus must be built. VIRSs do not expect to transfer knowledge to a student without asking the student to go through the experience of using and living with the information involved. VIRSs also do not expect a student to understand the knowledge of a teacher without first having access to the same information as the teacher and potentially making many mistakes with that information. However, a VIRS is expected to clean up their messes, and to ask for help when they need it.</p>
<h3 id="be-against-method">Be “Against Method”.</h3>
<p>It is both unrealistic and detrimental to information discovery and knowledge building to believe that education piracy can and should be run according to fixed, universal rules. Learning happens in the interplay between minds, bodies, environments, and their shared history. Each teacher, student, and moment will have different needs, and a VIRS must be prepared to improvise along the way.</p>
<p><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons Licence" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><br /><span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" property="dct:title">Vigilante Intergalactic Roustabout Scholars (VIRS)</span> by <a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" href="danbeekim.org" property="cc:attributionName" rel="cc:attributionURL">Danbee Kim</a> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>.<br />Based on a work at <a xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="http://www.danbeekim.org/projects/2018/02/28/VIRS-concept/" rel="dct:source">http://www.danbeekim.org/projects/2018/02/28/VIRS-concept/</a>.<br />Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at <a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" href="danbeekim.org" rel="cc:morePermissions">danbeekim.org</a>.</p>Danbee Tauntaun Kimdanbee@alum.mit.eduhttp://danbeekim.orgVigilante Intergalactic Roustabout Scholars -- or, education piracyDear Neuroscience :: From Visual Effects2017-06-21T00:00:00+00:002017-06-21T00:00:00+00:00http://www.danbeekim.org/dear%20neuroscience/2017/06/21/dear-neuro-from-visual-effects<p>“To get this started, let me outline the work we do in the visual effects industry.</p>
<p>Our work is about abstracting the complexity of the world around us (specifically, the photographed world around us) into algorithms that can be computed, to generate a Computer Generated Image. Hence “CGI”.</p>
<p>Our aim is to trick the human eye into believing our CGI is real.</p>
<p>Because the world around us is so complex, and computing power is limited, those algorithms do not, on their own, produce an image which is good enough to meet our aim.</p>
<p>If the algorithms get us 70% of the way to our aim, then the remaining 30% has to be met with human craft.</p>
<p>That 30% is achieved by humans comparing the CGI on their computer monitor in front of them, with either:</p>
<p>a photograph of a real thing <br />
an image in their mind’s eye, based on their life experiences and memories</p>
<p>For example, imagine we are making a CGI house. We use algorithms to define the shape of the house, the way light reflects from its roof tiles and bricks into the camera, the way ivy grows up its walls, the colour of the dirt on its windows. That gets us 70% to our aim.</p>
<p>Then, the artisan compares the CGI house with photographs of a real house. They notice the CGI roof tiles are too big, so they adjust the roof tile algorithm to make them smaller. They notice the ivy is growing more on the south-facing wall of the house, so they tweak the ivy algorithm to make more ivy on that wall.</p>
<p>Those kinds of decisions are based on visual observation skills, reasoning, leading to understanding. And then finding the right part of the algorithm to tweak.</p>
<p>In the end we get to 100%.</p>
<p>Another example. Imagine we are making a CGI dinosaur. Now there is no photograph. At best, maybe there are some photographs of some big lizards and some birds. This is where we start to see personal biases and distortions creep in to the mix. We start trying to relate to the viewer in the cinema - what’s going to make that viewer believe in our CGI dinosaur, what is the trigger for them? Can we make them believe our CGI dinosaur purely by piecing together photographic reference of lizards, birds, elephants? Will that be enough to get to 100%?</p>
<p>Sometimes it is, if the artisan is skilled enough in their visual observation of lizards and birds, and strong at reasoning, and understands how to use the algorithms effectively.</p>
<p>But sometimes that is not enough to reach the last 5%. We’ll need something else. Some special sauce. Some X factor. Often it will be something that we don’t predict or expect. We’ll try different things, trial and error, and one thing will just ‘click’ one day, and we’ll think “that’s it”.</p>
<p>I think that’s where there might be an overlap with your neuroscience work. Understanding what makes that special sauce.</p>
<p>My personal opinion is the special sauce is something that creates a personal connection between the CGI and the viewer. Something that touches a nerve.</p>
<p>Does that make any sense? :)”</p>
<p><em>Many thanks to Matthew Smith from <a href="http://www.dneg.com/reels/">Double Negative Visual Effects</a></em></p>
<p style="color:gray; font-size: 80%;">A bit more about Matthew: <br />
Outside of VFX, I have an interest in understanding the world around us, and how people interact with it. I don’t have any formal education in any science. But I do have some experience, both personal and indirect, of what happens to people when their understanding of the world, and their interaction with it, is flawed. <br />
My hero is Leonardo da Vinci. I have some interest in Buddhism. <br />
My ultimate aim is to build some solid framework that can help people understand more accurately the world around them. I intend to get there by using the principles of observation of the natural world, reasoning, and testing, that Leonardo used.</p>Danbee Tauntaun Kimdanbee@alum.mit.eduhttp://danbeekim.org'My personal opinion is the special sauce is something that creates a personal connection between the CGI and the viewer. Something that touches a nerve.' --Matthew SmithMy First London Summer2017-06-07T00:00:00+00:002017-06-07T00:00:00+00:00http://www.danbeekim.org/photo%20diary/2017/06/07/first-london-summer<p>The English are champion whingers, especially about the weather. Now that I’ve lived here a bit, I think I get why – the weather changes so much in a single day that it’s quite worth the discussion. Even in summer, sunny and warm days are rare…</p>
<figure style="width: 600px" class="align-center">
<img src="/assets/images/scribbles/20170526_185953_web.png" alt="A view from St. John's Lodge, Regent Park" />
<figcaption>A view from St. John's Lodge, Regent Park</figcaption>
</figure>Danbee Tauntaun Kimdanbee@alum.mit.eduhttp://danbeekim.orgThe weather here is not what I expected.Do it in the real world2016-05-26T00:00:00+00:002016-05-26T00:00:00+00:00http://www.danbeekim.org/song%20snippets/2016/05/26/do-it-in-the-real-world<p>let’s connect it back to places real, the feel of dancin a beat we weave into a future ideal. remember how our hands create, our feet can take us places, and our minds are just a tool to believe in us (in us, in us, in us, in us) - our minds are just a tool to believe in us.</p>
<p>you’re right, we shouldn’t hate, but when you say you want escape then we lose all the strength you could give to us, oh.</p>
<p>when our minds began to shape, faced an unknown landscape full of fatal fruits, but we move cuz that’s what living things do, so we lived, and we lived, but now can we just live?</p>Danbee Tauntaun Kimdanbee@alum.mit.eduhttp://danbeekim.orglet's connect it back to places realLittle Birds2015-09-29T00:00:00+00:002015-09-29T00:00:00+00:00http://www.danbeekim.org/song%20snippets/2015/09/29/little-birds<p>A little flock of birds<br />
lives in a walking structure.</p>
<p>A little luck, sir, to bless this tree house<br />
doused in the joy and pain<br />
of living in a cage so full of good intentions,<br />
but, whatever counts to bounce this house back<br />
on its feet when it falls<br />
down.</p>
<p>Little bird that lives in a nest of ribs –<br />
do you know where to go when you want<br />
to be home?</p>
<p>Don’t be alone.</p>
<p>Little bird that lives in a nest of hips –<br />
why don’t your lips sip a bit from the trickling river<br />
of rain?</p>
<p>Little bird that runs in the bottom of the house –<br />
when you press on the ground,<br />
can you hear the faraway sound<br />
of other treehouses?</p>
<p>Can you tell them where our is?</p>Danbee Tauntaun Kimdanbee@alum.mit.eduhttp://danbeekim.orgA little flock of birds live in a walking structureThe Traveling Troop of Teachers2014-08-31T00:00:00+00:002014-08-31T00:00:00+00:00http://www.danbeekim.org/projects/2014/08/31/traveling-troop-teachers<p>I want to explore alternatives to the current public school system by pursuing three goals.</p>
<p>The first is to foster self-motivated interest in math and science by introducing youth of varying socio-economic backgrounds who are struggling in traditional school environments to local professionals and over the course of 2 weeks, share meals and collaborate on projects in dance, music, and community involvement to discover shared interests and share learning experiences. The curriculum would focus on connecting creative and technological innovations to the math, science, and communication skills required to develop these innovations, and then applying those skills to design and implement projects that teach engineering principles and promote ethnocultural pride and identity.</p>
<p>The second goal of this project is to foster self-motivated interest in and develop a socially widespread culture for contributing at least 2 weeks per year of a professional career to teaching. This method of teacher recruitment would be incentivized by providing monetary compensation competitive with entry-level science and engineering jobs, and creating a structure within which multiple teachers share the load of managing students throughout the day, collaboratively mentoring and learning with the students. Re-defining the roles of teachers in this way opens up the teaching pool to other professionals, and would allow teachers to teach topics of much greater personal expertise and interest, take a more active role in regularly expanding their own knowledge and experience, and provide greater emotional and intellectual support for their fellow staff. Such a structure would also provide students with daily examples of occupations outside of their socio-economic background, respectful and provocative discourse between adult peers, and behaviors that promote lifelong creative and inquisitive attitudes.</p>
<p>The third goal is to prioritize disadvantaged inner-city school districts in major metropolitan areas of the US such as Philadelphia, New York City, Chicago, and LA, and public school districts in poorer, more racially segregated areas of the country, such as Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.</p>
<figure class="">
<img src="http://www.danbeekim.org/assets/images/brainPlay/TravelingTroopOfTeachers-01.png" alt="A sample school day schedule under this new structure" />
<figcaption>A sample school day schedule under this new structure.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Why these three goals?</p>
<p>Educators, scientists, professionals, and parents have pointed out the outdated and under-serving nature of the current public education system for decades without seeing any significant structural changes to the public education system since the 1950s. “Things have changed, but not in education - why? Why is it that when we had rotary phones, whene we were having folks crippled by polio, that we were teaching the same way then taht we’re doing right now?” (<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/geoffrey_canada_our_failing_schools_enough_is_enough">“Our failing schools. Enough is enough!” 2013 TED talk by Geoffrey Canada</a>).</p>
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<p>For instance, in 2005 a panel of researchers and medical professionals from multiple national and international institutions examined over 850 articles, published between 1980 and 2005, to evaluate available evidence on the influence of physical activity on health and behavioral outcomes in youth 6-18 years old. The expert panel recommended that “School-age youth should participate every day in 60 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity that is enjoyable and developmentally appropriate. …Health-related activities include those that emphasize cardiovascular and muscular endurance and muscular strength and those that involve weight bearing. …The recommended 60 minutes or more of physical activity can be acheived in a cumulative manner in school during physical education, recess, intramural sports, and before and after school programs. In this regard, the Centers for Disease Control recommends daily quality physical education from kindergarten through grade 12. Both physical education and recess afford opportunities to achieve the daily physical activity goal without any evidence of compromising academic performance.” (<a href="/assets/files/2005_EvidenceBasedPhysicalActivitySchoolAgedYouth_WBStrong.pdf">Strong, William B., et al. “Evidence based physical activity for school-aged youth.” The Journal of Pediatrics 146.6 (2005): 732-737</a>)</p>
<p>However, even with the ever-increasing collection of scientific and anectdotal evidence, “In 2013, only 99% of high school students had participated in at least 60 minutes per day of physical activity on each of the 7 days before the survey”, and “15.2% of high school students had not participated in 60 or more minutes of any kind of physical activity on any day during the 7 days before the survey.” Additionally, “The percentage of high school students who attended physical education classes daily decreased from 42% in 1991 to 25% in 1995 and remained stable at that level until 2013 (29%)” (<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss6304.pdf">CDC. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance – United States, 2013. MMWR 2014;63(SS-4)</a>).</p>
<p>Another review in 2007 analyzed 61 studies from between 1980 and 2004 to examine the effects of different teaching strategies on science literacy and achievement. The project concluded that two strategies, “Enhanced Context Strategies such as relating topics to previous experiences or learning and engaging students’ interest” and “Collaborative Learning Strategies such as flexible heterogeneous groupings and group inquiry projects” showed the strongest effects on student achievement in science. “Teachers can make learning relevant to students by presenting material in the context of real-world examples and problems. The real world can be brought to students through technology and students may be taken out of the classroom into the real world through field experiences. …if students are placed in an environment in which they can actively connect the instruction to their interests and present understandings and have an opportunity to experience collaborative scientific inquiry under the guidance of an effective teacher, achievement will be accelerated.” (<a href="http://cudc.uqam.ca/publication/ref/12context.pdf">Schroeder, Carolyn M., et al. “A meta-analysis of national research: Effects of teaching strategies on student achievement in science in the United States.” Journal of Research in Science Teaching 44.10 (2007): 1436-1460.</a>)</p>
<p>While many private schools, charter schools, and some public school programs around the country utilize alternative teaching methods to great success, in 2006 the newspaper Education Week reported that the national high school graduation rate was only 69.6%, and when broken down demographically, only “51.6 percent of Black students, 47.4 percent of American Indian and Alaskan Native students, and 55.6 percent of Hispanic students graduated from high school on time with a standard diploma”. Additionally, urban versus suburban graduation rates (60% and 75%, respectively) and graduation rates in school systems with high versus low levels of racial segregation (56.2% and 75.1%, respectively) point to a shared pattern of underserving education in both poorer and more racially segregated school districts (<a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2006/06/22/index.html">Edwards, Virginia B. “Diplomas Count: An Essential Guide to Graduation Policy and Rates.” Education Week 25 (2006): n41S</a>).</p>
<p>The new structure for learning environments and teacher recruitment that I proposed above focuses on increasing daily physical activity, teaching arts and sciences together, and increasing the resources and opportunities made available to poorer and more racially segregated school districts. As such, a sustainable implementation of this structure requires low financial overhead and maximizing the involvement and resources of the local community.</p>
<p>This idea could be implemented in two phases. The first phase prototypes these new learning environments and student-teacher interactions with a pilot program within the Boston metropolitan area, where I’ve been involved in the community since 2005. This prototyping process would include developing teacher certification criteria, recruiting students struggling in traditional school environments, establishing measures of growth and development in students, and interfacing this 2 week program with the traditional school year. The second phase would be to take this program to the other communities I’m interested in prioritizing, by putting together a traveling team of teachers and support staff. The traveling staff would connect with local teachers and community members and spend a 4 week cycle in each location, taking the first week to interact with the local community and develop curricula that is relevant to that community, and the last week to collect feedback, conduct interviews with students and parents, and discuss long-term plans for the traveling teachers’ continued involvement in the community.</p>
<p>In order to implement phase two in a sustainable way, the project needs to provide room, board, and transportation to the travelling teachers. Staying with locals, either through organizations such as Couchsurfing or through contacts made individually, would immerse the traveling teachers in the community and facilitate deeper personal bonds between the local community and the traveling teachers. Expenses for both phases would include transportation, teacher pay, food for shared meals, and materials for student projects.</p>Danbee Tauntaun Kimdanbee@alum.mit.eduhttp://danbeekim.orgMostly a thinly-veiled rant about public education and teaching as an occupation in the USend of the world nightmare2014-04-19T00:00:00+00:002014-04-19T00:00:00+00:00http://www.danbeekim.org/dreams/2014/04/19/end-of-the-world-nightmare<p>I frantically navigate hallways, looking for the faces on my mental checklist of people whose whereabouts I need to know in case of an emergency. some are already with me, and we surge through pipe-lined concrete spaces. no windows, but there’s plenty of lighting, though it’s not too harsh. I turn a corner, and a somewhat familiar figure lurches towards me, but I already know something is horribly wrong. I yell into my crowd of comrades, and someone hands me a gun. I fire without realizing what weapon I’m utilizing, and watch stunned as the vaguely familiar figure slumps, then disintegrates into a cloud of ash.</p>
<p>we have to keep moving, but as we run I reprimand the faceless but familiar person who sourced my firearm - “why do we have guns? this is out of control!” I can’t stand the weight or feel of the weapon. we find another comrade, clearly suffering, and in a frenzy we pool around her, holding her and trying to assess the situation while on the verge of panic. she is deemed too far gone. “someone shoot her!” I cry while holding the gun up, hoping someone will take it and the responsibility away from me. but unbeknownst to me the weapon is voice activated, and before I can even react it has obeyed my order, and half of her face is gone. I try to command my arm to fling the gun away, but my arm ignores my commands.</p>
<p>we run again, but now i’m blinded by angry tears as my frustration grows - why can’t I get rid of this gun? I stop paying attention to the crowd of comrades and suddenly I’m alone and grabbed by a hostile figure, it’s melted face twisted into a look of alien yet very clear malice. I scream and without a moment’s hesitation raise the hand holding the gun, find the trigger, and squeeze, but it clicks and the ammunition chamber pops out as I stare down the barrel - it was pointed at me. had the gun still been loaded, I would have blasted my own head off (upon waking, questions concerning the details of exactly how I would have squeezed the trigger of a gun pointed back at my own head occupied my mind for a good 5 minutes). dumbfounded, I stare in frozen horror as the melted face of my attacker moves closer and closer to me…and gently touches what would have been lips to my nose. the figure then places both hands on either side of my head, and gently, slowly, but inexplicably pushes our foreheads together until we start melting into each other. bright colors, old memories, recent places and faces explode in my vision until I wake up to a soft grey dawn with a lingering taste of loneliness and regret.</p>
<figure class="">
<img src="http://www.danbeekim.org/assets/images/brainPlay/dream_or_nightmare-veido.png" alt="Dream...or a nightmare? By Veido" />
<figcaption>image credit: veido.deviantart.com
</figcaption>
</figure>Danbee Tauntaun Kimdanbee@alum.mit.eduhttp://danbeekim.orga lingering taste of loneliness and regret